UK's fastest GPU-based supercomputer unveiled

Two of the UK’s most powerful supercomputers will whirr into action tomorrow, giving businesses and academics access to the cutting edge processing power.

One is an HP machine with Nvidia‘s Tesla accelerated GPU on board, named Emerald, which will come online along the Iridis 3, and will be used for a variety of number-crunching applications.

These will include healthcare studies into Tamiflu and swine flu, as well helping deploy the world’s most powerful telescope, simulating 4G communications networks, and more.

They will also be used for business applications, giving SMEs a leg up to use the power of High Performance Computing, and can be used for testing new products.

The supercomputers were funded by a £3.7 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council – part of a £145 million government investment in e-infrastructure. Both the supercomputers will be unveiled at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).

This is where Emerald will be housed, while the Iridis 3 is being hosted by the University of Southampton.

Dr Lesley Thompson, Director of EPSRC’s Research Base said that the new supercomputers are crucial to “maintaining the UK’s leading science base and underpinning our national competitiveness and economic recovery”.

Universities secretary David Willets heralded the suptercomputers as keeping the UK at the cutting edge of science.